A nasty northerly wind came up overnight which made the first 100km or so a bit of a struggle as we battled into it heading up the Eyre Peninsula towards Whyalla. Luckily it did ease as the morning progressed. The landscape was predominantly grain growing and sheep farming until we neared Whyalla itself where it changed back to the scrubby outback foliage that we are so familiar with. Some of the wheat fields had the start of new crops visible with lovely green carpeting the fields instead of the dirt we have been seeing since Nabawa days. Our lunch stop was at a rest area not far from the town that looked out at the huge mountain of rock from the iron ore mine – quite an impressive pile. With a town and surrounds to check out plus a few tidy up jobs to do on the van we checked ourselves into the foreshore caravan park for a few nights. The beach is covered with a thick carpet of washed up Sea Grass. Something that has been very noticeable all along this coast.
Wednesday was get some food and fuel as we were out of both and then some jobs cleaning up some of the more niggly parts of the van in preparation to selling it. Thursday was more jobs and then a walk around the older part of Whyalla near the port area. The buildings reminded us of Port Hedland with everything having an orange rusty dust look from the iron ore that is handled. All in all the shopping area had quite a depressed feel about it which is expected given the main modern mall type shopping area is on the other side of town and also the close proximity of the very industrial port area – just a stones throw away.
From Whyalla we plan a quick stop back at Port Augusta (we were there late Feb) and then an inland route via Ballarat to Melbourne.
